---
name: "The 1911 Odyssey"
subtitle: "The first film adaptation of Homer's epic — a surviving Italian silent, free to watch"
date: 2026-07-10
shortlist: true
link: "https://www.openculture.com/2026/07/watch-the-first-spectacular-film-adaptation-of-the-odyssey-1911.html"
linkText: "openculture.com"
source: "Open Culture"
topics: [general-delight]
tags: [film-history, silent-film, homer, odyssey]
description: "L'Odissea (1911), the first-ever film adaptation of Homer's Odyssey — an Italian silent famous for its ambitious early special effects — surviving and free to watch."
---

Made in 1911, L'Odissea was the first time anyone put Homer's Odyssey on a screen, and it went big: hand-tinted color, a blinded Cyclops, ships and sea-monsters conjured with the era's most ambitious practical effects. That it survives at all is the delight — you can watch a 115-year-old attempt to film the sirens and the return to Ithaca, free, in about forty minutes. Open Culture's post embeds the whole thing with context on how it was made.